Where are they now? The England U21 XI from Lee Carsley’s first game in charge
Lee Carsley was appointed as England’s interim manager following the departure of Gareth Southgate in July 2024 – but what became of his first under-21 side?
Carsley is still technically the England under-21s manager, and his first match in charge of the U21s came exactly three years to the day before Saturday’s Nations League victory. It was a 2-0 victory over Kosovo U21s at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes.
Fifteen England players featured in that match, including subs, and most of them are now household names. We’re taking a look at where those players are now, three years on.
GK: Josef Bursik
Bursik has enjoyed an unconventional career path so far.
The young keeper came up through Wimbledon’s youth set-up, signed for Stoke City, went on six different loans all over the English football pyramid, signed for Club Brugge in Belgium, made a few appearances for their youth team, and is now on loan at Hibs in Edinburgh.
Fun fact: Bursik is named after his grandad, who was apparently a Czech war hero.
RB: Max Aarons
Aarons is the cousin of former Newcastle United winger Rolando Aarons. His cousin has moved onto pastures new and less illustrious, but Max is making a real go of it at the top level.
After five seasons of playing almost every possible game for Norwich City, Aarons signed for Bournemouth.
The right-back was enjoying a relatively successful first season, but it was cut short by injury, and he hasn’t managed to claw his way back into the starting XI just yet. Plenty of time for that, though.
CB: Marc Guehi
Subject of the Premier League’s latest long, drawn-out, tiresome transfer saga Marc Guehi had just signed for Crystal Palace when Carsley took charge of his first England U21s match.
Guehi has represented England at every age group from U16s upwards, and now he’s a starting centre-back for the senior team.
He’s still at Crystal Palace, for now—Steve Parish was having none of Newcastle’s attempts to pry the defender away from London this summer, but come January, Guehi will have just 18 months left on his contract…
CB: Taylor Harwood-Bellis
Taylor Harwood-Bellis helped us get promoted from the Championship with many a team in our first season with various clubs on Football Manager. Get the young defender on loan in your first year and your backline was good to go.
Get a buyout option in that contract and you’re set for the next ten years.
In real life, Harwood-Bellis embarked upon five different loans, the last of which was at Southampton, who had an obligation to buy him for £20m at the end of the season.
The defender played almost every game of the season for Saints, and has now started the first three games of the 2024-25 season for them as a permanent signing.
LB: Luke Thomas
Thomas is 23 now, and is yet to make a senior appearance for England. He did, however, feature in the Panini sticker album for Euro 2024, as Panini didn’t have the image rights for some of the players.
The left-back is now on loan at Middlesbrough from parent club Leicester City.
CM: Oliver Skipp (Tommy Doyle ’83)
Speaking of Leicester, that’s where former Tottenham midfielder Oliver Skipp is playing his football these days. Skipp signed for the Foxes this summer after making over a hundred appearances for Spurs, and almost 50 for Norwich during a 2020-21 loan spell.
Skipp is an old head on young shoulders, which perhaps comes from playing for England U21s on 24 separate occasions. That’s a lot for an age group team.
Doyle was about to embark upon a six-month loan with Hamburger SV in the German second tier back in the summer of 2021. Now, he’s a first-team regular with Wolves in the Premier League. He replaced Oliver Skipp against Kosovo.
Interestingly, both of his grandfathers played for Manchester City and were long-time teammates. They also both played against Wolves, for whom Tommy plays now, in the 1974 League Cup Final.
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CM: James Garner
At the time of Carsley’s England U21 managerial debut, Garner was on loan at Nottingham Forest, having already made a handful of appearances for Manchester United’s first team.
A few seasons on loan in the Championship were enough to convince Everton to bring the Birkenhead-born lad back to Merseyside.
The midfielder is yet to make his senior England debut, but he has become a Premier League regular for the Toffees. Big things to come from Garner, we expect.
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CM: Conor Gallagher
This summer’s other big transfer saga involved Conor Gallagher’s move to, and return from, Atletico Madrid, before the transfer was finally confirmed, with Joao Felix going the other way, to join Chelsea’s ever-growing standing army of wingers and number 10s.
Having captained Chelsea for most of the previous season, the homegrown 24-year-old midfielder who represented the England senior team at Euro 2024 is now part of Diego Simeone’s midfield, fulfilling a similar role to that which was carried out by El Cholo himself back in the day.
RW: Cole Palmer (Tyreece John-Jules ’72)
Ice Cold Cole hadn’t yet made a Premier League appearance for Manchester City when Carlsey took charge of the England U21s. He would only play in 19 league matches across his entire City career when all was said and done. That was dumb from City. That was very dumb.
Palmer joined Chelsea on deadline day last summer, and promptly scored 25 goals from midfield in his first season. Sure, he takes penalties, but he’s f*cking good at them.
He’s just signed an eight-year contract at Chelsea—the old Ashley/Pardew financial double twist.
John-Jules has spent his whole career technically an Arsenal player but perennially on loan around the Football League. He recently became a free agent when Arsenal decided not to renew his contract.
Fun fact: John-Jules’ uncle played Cat in Red Dwarf. One for the older readers.
LW: Noni Madueke (Tino Livramento ’83)
Chukwunonso Tristan Madueke, it will not surprise you to hear, began his football journey with Crystal Palace’s academy. He’s dripping with South London flair. By 2021, Madueke was a first-team regular with PSV in the Eredivisie.
The fleet-footed winger is back in London, now, with Chelsea, a little further West. Carlsey started Madueke against Ireland for his senior debut on—the first of many England caps, you’d expect.
Livramento is currently in the process of making the Newcastle United right-back berth his own, as Kieran Trippier finds himself warming the 21-year-old’s previous spot on the bench more often than not in 2024-25.
Tino came on for Noni Madueke in the last ten minutes of Carlsey’s England U21 managerial debut, such is his versatility. Right back, left back, right wing, left wing, midfield — whatever you want.
The aforementioned Tripper announced his retirement from international football just prior to the September international break, whilst Livramento earned his first call-up with England senior team. A passing of the torch, we feel.
ST: Rhian Brewster (Folarin Balogun ’65)
After a lot of hype early in Brewster’s career, the forward only ended up making four senior appearances for Liverpool—none of them in the Premier League. At the time of the England U21 v Kosovo U21 match Brewster had completed a loan spell at Swansea and his first permanent season with Sheffield United.
The Blades have yo-yo’d between the Premier League and the Championship since Brewster’s arrival. They’re looking to win promotion back to the Premier League from the second tier in 2024-25.
Balogun came on for Brewster just after the hour mark against Kosovo. The ex-Arsenal striker recently declared for the USA at international level, and has already made 16 appearances for the USMNT.
The striker was on fire for Will Still’s Reims in 2022-23, scoring goals for a daft laugh. In 2023, Balogun signed a permanent deal with Monaco, but his form his dipped a little since then.